KTVO

KTVO

Kirksville, Missouri/ Ottumwa, Iowa
Branding	KTVO 3 (general) KTVO News KTVO CBS 3.2 (on DT2)
Slogan	Spirit of the Heartland & Because Accuracy Matters
Channels	Digital: 33 (UHF) Virtual: 3 (PSIP)
Subchannels	3.1 ABC 3.2 CBS/ America One
Owner	Barrington Broadcasting (Barrington Kirksville License, LLC)
First air date	November 21, 1955
Call letters' meaning	Kirksville TeleVision/ Ottumwa
Sister station(s)	KHQA-TV
Former channel number(s)	3 (VHF analog, 1955-2009)
Former affiliations	CBS (1955-1974, secondary from 1968) ABC (secondary, 1955-1968) NBC (secondary, 1955-1974)
Transmitter power	87 kW
Height	290 m
Facility ID	21251
Transmitter coordinates	40°31′47″N 92°26′29″W
Website	heartlandconnection.com

KTVO is the ABC-affiliated television station for the Honey Lands area of Northeastern Missouri and Southeastern Iowa. Licensed to Kirksville, Missouri, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 33 from a transmitter northwest of Downing, Missouri along US 136. The station can also be seen in Iowa on Mediacom channel 5 (HD on digital channel 803) and in Missouri on CableOne channel 6 (HD on digital channel 455). Owned by Barrington Broadcasting, it has studios on US 63 north of Kirksville. Syndicated programming on KTVO includes: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Kim Possible, and Bleach.

Digital programming

On KTVO-DT2 is the area's CBS affiliate. Known on-air as KTVO CBS 3.2, this is currently not seen on Mediacom systems. Instead Mediacom offer fellow CBS station KCCI from Des Moines, Iowa on channel 8 and digital channel 808 (for high definition). Syndicated programming on KTVO-DT2 includes: The Dr. Oz Show, The Nate Berkus Show, Judge Karen's Court, and The Andy Griffith Show. The station also airs a few selected shows from America One during the overnight period. The video is converted to 720p from CBS's native 1080i and CBS programming with 5.1 sound is downmixed to stereo.

Channels (virtual/physical)	Video	Aspect	Programming
3.1/33.1	720p	16:9	main KTVO programming/ABC (HD)
3.2/33.2	720p	16:9	KTVO-DT2 CBS (HD)

History

KTVO signed-on November 21, 1955 airing an analog signal on VHF channel 3. It was a primary CBS affiliate, although its single market status allowed it to cherry-pick the most popular programming from NBC and ABC. The station was founded by Jim Conroy. Many people thought the Ottumwa/Kirksville DMA was too small to support a television station but Conroy persevered believing Southeastern Iowa and Northeastern Missouri would be proud to have a locally-based station. This was not a surprise given that KTVO was the area's only channel until 1986 when KOIA-TV (now Fox affiliate KYOU-TV) took to-the-air.

For the station's first twenty years, KTVO's operations were primarily based in Ottumwa in studios shared with then co-owned KBIZ-AM 1240. On January 7, 1964, KTVO was sold to Post Corporation which renovated the facilities in Ottumwa. In 1968, KTVO switched primary affiliation to ABC, although the station continued carrying a few CBS and NBC shows until 1974. In 1976, KTVO relocated its facilities outside Kirksville. Int the early to mid-1980s, KTVO operated a short-lived, low-power UHF station, K40AI, channel 40. A large bulk of K40AI's schedule was made up of programming from the now-defunct Satellite Program Network. K40AI also re-purposed a small amount of KTVO's syndicated programming at the time, such as Solid Gold.

In 1984, George N. Gillett, Jr. bought the Post Corporation Stations; however, due to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ownership limit of five VHF television stations that was in effect at the time, KTVO was spun-off to a local telecommunications company called "Gillbro Communications". Federal Broadcasting (later Federal Enterprises) acquired the station in 1987.

On June 2, 1988, a three-member broadcast tower maintenance crew was killed when the KTVO transmitter tower collapsed. This forced the channel, along with radio station KRXL-FM 94.5 (which had been renting antenna space on the tower) off-the-air. Since the original tower was still available, KTVO was able to resume broadcasting within thirty hours of the collapse. An Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigation placed official blame for the tower collapse primarily on the maintenance crew citing the removal of too many tower cross-braces at once for repair. Although a relatively new structure, the steel cross-braces had already shown signs of cracking, rust, and other deterioration thus necessitating the early repair and maintenance.

KTVO was acquired by Raycom Media in 1996. In December 2003, Raycom acquired the television stations of Waitt Media, which included KYOU. However, due to FCC duopoly regulations, KYOU was transferred to Ottumwa Media Holdings, LLC and entered into a local marketing agreement (LMA) with KTVO. On March 27, 2006, the company announced that it would sell KTVO along with thirteen other stations across the country to Barrington Broadcasting. The sale closed that August. As a result, KYOU's owner, Ottumwa Media Holdings, was renamed American Spirit Media. At some point thereafter, KYOU terminated the LMA with KTVO.

KTVO had been serving the Quincy, Illinois/Hannibal, Missouri/Keokuk, Iowa market as the default analog ABC affiliate on cable with some locations being able pick up its over-the-air signal. On August 28, 2007, sister station KHQA announced that it would launch a new second digital subchannel to offer ABC programming beginning September 30. However, KTVO remains on area cable systems. This station launched a CBS-affiliated second digital subchannel on May 15, 2010 effectively marking the network's return to the area after a 36 year absence. Until this point, KHQA had been the analog default affiliate. Like KHQA-DT2 currently, KTVO-DT2 originally offered American One as a secondary affiliate but has since added syndicated programming to its schedule. In addition to KTVO, Mediacom systems in Iowa offer fellow ABC station WOI-DT from Des Moines on channel 4.

News operation

News open.

Although KTVO is the only local source of newscasts in the market, it shares resources with sister station KHQA to provide additional coverage of the territory. In addition to its main studios, KTVO operates a bureau on South Market Street in Downtown Ottumwa which were actually the original studios. KTVO-DT2 airs a Southeastern Iowa-focused newscast on weeknights called KTVO CBS 3.2 News at 6:30 originating from the bureau. To meet the needs of the areas increasing Hispanic population, a five-minute Spanish-language "mini-newscast" was begun on KTVO-DT2 in October, 2011. It airs at 10 p.m. weeknights, featuring news headlines and local weather forecasts. Otherwise, the subchannel airs no other local news. Unlike most ABC affiliates in the Central Time Zone, KTVO does not air a full two-hour morning or midday show on weekdays.

In March 2009, KTVO received national attention as the victim of viewer prank. A list of fake names many considered crude or obscene (i.e. Dixie Normus and Craven Moorhead) was submitted to its weekday morning show birthdays/anniversaries segment. This list was aired in February 2009 and by March a video of the incident began appearing on websites such as YouTube and Break.com. Over 400,000 viewings occurred on YouTube before KTVO management forced the removal citing copyright violation. However, it had gained enough national attention that the Howard Stern radio show and Jimmy Kimmel Live! exposed the prank to a larger audience.

Newscast titles

• The 11th Hour Report (1960s-1974)
• Newsroom 3 (1974–1978)
• Extra Effort News (1978-early 1980s)
• Newscene 3 (early-mid 1980s)
• News for the Heartland (mid 1980s-1990s)
• News 3: Your Source (1990s-2002)
• KTVO News (2002–present)

Station slogans

• "Spirit of the Heartland" (general, 1980s-present)
• "Because Accuracy Matters" (news, 2002–present)

News team

Anchors

• Marlene Speas - News Director seen weeknights at 5pm
• John Garlock - weeknights at 6 and 10pm
• Kate Allt - weeknights at 6:30 (KTVO 3.2) and Ottumwa Bureau reporter
• Ela Soroka - morning anchor/ general assignment reporter
• Stephanie Claytor - Weekend anchor / general assignment reporter

KTVO Storm Team Meteorologists

• Teresa Carter - Chief seen weeknights 5, 6, and 10pm
• Vanessa Alonso - Meteorologist/ General assignment reporter

Sports

• Fred Beck - Director seen weeknights at 6, 6:30, and 10
  • Hoops Highlights& Gridiron Lights host
• Johnny Mangano - Sports and Ottumwa bureau general assignment reporter

Reporters

• Greg Deffenbaugh - Weekend weather / general assignment reporter
• Tess Hedrick - general assignment reporter, Ottumwa bureau.

External links

• KTVO
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KTVO